Epilogue
Noah
“Really?” I looked down at the circular shield with the red, white, and blue circles that Finn had handed me. “Who put you in charge of costumes anyway?”
Finn clapped me on the shoulder. “Take it up with Bo. He insisted.”
Bo waved his sword at me while Lana and Amy helped buckle him into his chest plate.
“If I’m the only one wearing tights in this photo shoot, someone is going to be having a hard time walking tomorrow,” I yelled out. No one was listening to me. I felt the press of a familiar set of fingers along the top of my ass. I guess someone heard me.
“If it makes you feel better, your costume is kind of a turn-on.”
“How much of a turn-on?”
“Post-fight, can’t wait to get out of the car, turn-on?” Grace whispered against my back. I lowered my shield to cover my groin as I felt my body tighten in response. Tights were not very good at disguising a guy’s reaction to the woman he loved, particularly when she was stroking a sensitive patch of skin on his low back.
“I, ah, think you need to take two steps back and to the side.” But when she listened to me, I immediately regretted it. I swept her close to me and placed my shield at her back.
She pushed out her lower lip, which I took as an invitation to bite. She drew back, and I followed to give her a firmer kiss, but she placed her hands against my upper arms.
“No more kissing or we’ll end up giving everyone a free show.”
“Like I care.” I pressed her closer to me. Never a fan of PDA, I really couldn’t get enough of Grace. I admit I liked having her within arm’s reach, preferably with her amazing rack pressed against my chest and arm. My eyes crossed a little at the thought of licking down the line of my dog tags that disappeared into the valley that her v-neck T-shirt exposed. I contented myself with laying a hard, wet kiss across her mouth. When she parted her lips, I swept in, allowing the hoots and laughter of our friends to serve as the soundtrack to our happily ever after.
The End
Contact Me
Look for Bo’s story in August 2013. You can read an excerpt at JenFrederick.com
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Author Notes
I took a few liberties with the facts of reality in telling my story. It is highly unlikely that Noah and Bo served three deployments in row, particularly after 2011. One of the longest concurrent deployments on record was the eighteen months served by the Iowa National Guard. Ordinarily, you would have to get a special dispensation from the Department of Defense to serve that long in a war zone.
It is also rare that Grace would not be able to attend some classes in the Art Department, even if she did not have a major in Art. I made up that part of the story to provide the dark moment of Grace’s life. I hope you’ll forgive me for taking the artistic license.
All other errors are, of course, mine.
Acknowledgments
No book ever reaches the publication stage in solitude. This journey would be stalled on my laptop if it weren’t for a group of people who encouraged me and provided faultless guidance.
To my beta readers: Brie, AW, Daphne, Elyssa, and Kati, this book would have been a sad and sorry product without your input.
To my editing team: RL, Daphne, and AW, each pass gave this rough rock a wonderful polish.
To the ones who know more about self publishing than I may ever learn: Jessica and Elyssa.
To Meljean Brook for the amazing cover.
To Sean for all the help with the military aspects. All errors are mine, of course.
To my friends: Gretchen, Chris, the MGL email group.